Half of UK IT professionals looking to leave current employer in the next 12 months

More than half (54%) of UK IT professionals that have been in their role for one year or less,
plan to leave their current employer within the next 12 months, according to a survey by Mortimer
Spinks and Computer Weekly.

Questioning 1,200 technology and digital experts, the survey found that this figure increased
from 38% last year (See image 1).

Harry Gooding, head of client engagement at Mortimer Spinks, said technology professionals are
really focusing on "skilling up" and moving to jobs where they are given the opportunity to do
so.

“The cynic would say that this is a case of employees just wanting to add value to their CVs,"
said Harry Gooding. "However, it’s usually a case of people wanting to keep up with the industry
and new technologies.”

Staff retention

Image 1

The report came to the conclusion that allowing time for innovation can change the DNA of your
business. The survey suggests that tech employees who are allocated more time for innovation are
more likely to stay at a company.

Some 45% of employees that claim to have no time for innovation are planning to leave in the
next 12 months (see image 2).

Of those that are allowed to spend 20-39% of their working week for innovation, only 7% say they
want to leave.

Gooding gave the example of Google, which allocates 20% of each employee’s time just for
innovation: “Giving time for innovation and entrepreneurship is important to keeping employees
happy and productive."

Image 2

“Employees want to feel valued and trusted, not overworked stretched and underpaid. The second
example is a surefire way to get people to leave,” he added.

He explained: “Taking risks can pay off. We’ve adopted the “fail quickly” model to new product
and service innovation and created new business growth as a result."

It's not just about increasing salaries and innovation

Meint Dijkstra, technical director at distributor Computerlinks, said staff retention is
not just about salaries and dedicated innovation time: “We've found that by providing staff with
challenging projects and the ability to constantly learn new skills, combined with generous
secondary benefits, means that staff stay with us significantly longer than average for our
industry.

Image 3

Image 3 reveals what keeps employees happy at work, with 74% saying interesting/challenging
projects keep them satisfied and productive, while 72% said it is being surrounded by good
people.

“Offering high salaries alone doesn't guarantee you get the best person, or that they'll stay
with you,” said Dijkstra.

Dijkstraexplained that rather than specifically allocating innovation time in the
working day, Computerlinks encourages and rewards staff who are entrepreneurial and suggest new
business ideas.

He gave the recent example of comparetheware.com, which is an IT comparison
website launched by two members of the Computerlinks team: “After their plans were reviewed and
approved by the board, they were duly rewarded and given time during their normal working day
to work on the new project. The company invested directly in the project to get it off the ground
quickly.”

Peter Chadha, chief executive and founder of independent technology advisor Dr Pete said IT staff become dissatisfied and move jobs due to
the ideal that is created at the bigger players in the industry.

“A combination of the truly amazing advances in technology, such as smartphones and tablets; the
glamorous innovative jobs on offer at the likes of Google; and the seemingly get-rich-quick
depictions of IT people in the media is driving a dissatisfaction with run-of-the-mill IT jobs,"
Chadha said.

"As the technology continues to heighten its awareness, this dissatisfaction rises
year-on-year.”

Chadha highlighted that an increase in IT staff churn can cause serious knock-on effects on
businesses.

He said when non-technical staff leave a project halfway through it causes a lot of disruption,
but when technical staff depart, the impact is much more profound because of the knowledge they
have for the systems overall.

“This is more so than any other role in the business due to the complexity of IT environments
and the knock-on effect one system can have on another,” said Chadha.

One way of retaining staff, according to Chadha, is giving them the opportunity to use the
latest software and hardware gadgets and see how these can be applied commercially in the
business.

“Sexy new kit always helps," he said. "It may sound obvious but making them feel appreciated for
what is sometimes a very demanding role is vitally important. Simply saying ‘thank you’ when they
have done heroic work on a broken system goes a long way!”

Sanjiv Gossain, UK managing director at Cognizant said
that while compensation is an important aspect of any organisation’s talent strategy, focus on
compensation alone to attract and retain talent is inappropriate.

He suggested that there is no one-size fits all in terms of talent strategy to boost retention,
so companies must take into account different profiles, generations and genders of employees.

Stuart Silberg, vice-president of technology at online travel firm Hotels.com, said: “As technology professionals, it’s in our
nature to want to innovate, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that staff who are given the chance
to do so enjoy the work they do that much more.”

Hotels.com gives it developers one day a month for “pure innovation” and learning about new
technologies, to encourage its staff to become excited about the projects they work on.

“When people leave halfway through a project, it completely changes the team dynamic and
disrupts the work flow, so it is vital that companies do everything in their power to ensure staff
are happy before it gets to this point,” said Silberg.

The power of the software engineer

A variety of job roles took part in the survey from chief technology officers (CTOs) to software
developers and enterprise architects to digital entrepreneurs. The results showed a relatively even
spilt across the job categories – apart from software engineers.

Of the participants, 13% categorised themselves as software engineers, which was much higher
than any other category.

According to 61% of permanent software engineers, they have seen an increase on their base
salary over the last 12 months, with 25% noticing an increase of more than 10%.

The results were also similar for the contracts market with 34% of contract software engineers
claiming to have had an increase in their daily rate. Of these, 14% said this was more than a 10%
salary increase.

Around 35% of IT professionals claim to have seen a 35% rise in the amount of software engineers
employed onsite (see image 4), while 48% said the figure had stayed the same and only 17%
said they had experienced a decrease.

Image 4

Gooding said the results are a true reflection of the client calls he participates in: “Every
call I’m on, I hear from clients that they can’t find good quality software engineers.

"Clients also seemed to be looking for hands-on technical guys that have good communication
skills too.”

Dijkstra said that Computerlinks has seen a surge in demand for software engineers.

"In the wake of the commoditisation of hardware and the migration to software-based solutions
such as SDN, SaaS and mobile application development, finding – rather than retaining – the right
people for support, networking, systems and web development is the key challenge for us," he
said.

According to Chadha the term software engineer sounds "edgier" than the traditional "software
developer."

“This is partly due to the term mainly emanating from the Silicon Valley ecosystem, where the
likes of Google and Apple use it as their preferred language. Perhaps this improves self-esteem -
as the engineer feels that he or she is making things not just developing,” he said.

A lack of entrepreneurship

Despite the general view that staff need time for innovation and the chance to make things, the
survey surprisingly revealed that almost a quarter (23%) of tech professionals working within the
technology/telecoms sector feel their employer actively discourages entrepreneurship. However, 27%
said it is allowed and 50% said it is encouraged. Of this 50%, 15% said they are formally
encouraged to be entrepreneurial.

Across all industry sectors, 46% believe entrepreneurship is encouraged when taking into
account, while, 23% still said it is discouraged (see image 5).

Image 5

People that classify themselves as working for the government feel least encouragement to be
entrepreneurial. Within this sector, 34% said they are actively discouraged.

Gooding said these can be down to company culture. “The people that are driving entrepreneurship
are not the people that make the technology decisions,” he said.

“I am not that surprised at the government figures; entrepreneurs are not the sort of people
public sector organisations typically hire, nor does their culture generally encourage it,” said
SiteVisibility's Jason Woodford.

He added that entrepreneurship and creativity is not in-built.

“We can’t encourage the idea that if we network enough and hang out with the right people, we
will just 'breed' creativity and innovation," he said. "It’s up to us, as business leaders, to
ensure this myth doesn’t fool our next generation of business superstars.”

Dr Pete's Peter Chadha raised the point that many businesses lack IT leadership at the highest
levels and are essentially afraid of technology.

“This is why very few encourage entrepreneurship with technology, and it’s an issue that the IT
industry must address,” he said.

Phil Smith, chief executive at Cisco UK & Ireland said the bigger companies and investors
should no longer be shying away from investing in innovation or promoting
entrepreneurship.

In addition, entrepreneurs and tech start-ups of today should not be afraid to push their ideas
right to the top and ensure they live up to their true potential, he said.

“With one of the world’s strongest digital markets and the ICT, software and digital content
sectors worth £100bn combined, we can really put Britain at the forefront of technology
innovation.

"By nurturing the innovators of today, we can ensure that Britain fulfils its potential as a
global technology hub. Cisco believes that together with the government and other partners we can
truly help inspire the minds of the entrepreneurs of today and build a brilliant future for
Britain,” he added.

Adam Jarvis, chief executive at Intrinsic Technology, suggested that the pace of change in the
IT industry means that innovation and entrepreneurship here is more important than in perhaps any
other sector.

“As trends like technology consumerisation and mobility fuel employee demand for new ways of
working, the IT department can all too easily be left behind,” he said.

Email Alerts

By submitting my Email address I confirm that I have read and accepted the Terms of Use and Declaration of Consent.

By submitting your personal information, you agree to receive emails regarding relevant products and special offers from TechTarget and its partners. You also agree that your personal information may be transferred and processed in the United States, and that you have read and agree to the Terms of Use and the Privacy Policy.

Google is the latest of the tech giants hiring Wall Street hotshots. The CIO lesson? Partner with your CFO if you want to get ahead. Also in Searchlight: Facebook turns Messenger into an ecosystem; Twitter faces a gender bias lawsuit.